Crimson Dawn
by grisabele
Summary: What if the Tsuchihara house was a house that could be explored in FF2?


**Crimson Dawn**

**A/N: For the purposes of the story, please assume that this takes place during Chapter Eight.**

Mio took her sister's hand and fled down the narrow streets with her. She didn't want to waste any time...those ghosts with torches and sickles might attack them again. And Mayu was looking tired. She was going to need to rest soon.

She led her twin to the closest house and slid the door open, ushering her inside.

And she hoped that the spirits in that house were not as hostile as the other spirits in the village.

Mio pushed Mayu into the house first, firmly closing the door behind her.

"Follow me, Mayu," she said quietly, walking down the hallway. The pale white light the flashlight emitted illuminated the narrow hallway, casting its pale white light a few feet in front of her. There was a faded painting on the wall...of cranes? She couldn't tell.

"Mayu...come on..."

She didn't her her sister's footsteps behind her. "Mayu?"

No answer.

She slowy turned around, readying the camera...

And found Mayu still standing in the entrance, staring blankly ahead with a look of sheer terror on her face.

"Mayu!"

Mio ran to her sister. At that moment, she didn't care if there was a hostile entity behind her. Her sister needed her.

And that was all that mattered.

"Mayu? What is it? What do you see?"

"We need to leave," Mayu whispered, "Now..."

Mio didn't aruge. She grabbed Mio's hand and ran straight for the door. She pulled on the handle, but it refused to budge. She tried taking a picture of it, hoping it would reveal some clue, hoping whatever held the door shut would be driven away, but in the end all she did was waste film.

"We're...trapped," she said finally. Mayu didn't move. She slowly turned around instead, focusing her vision on the hallway. Mio whipped around with the camera ready.

The ghost of a young woman in a black-and-gold kimono stood directly in front of them.

"_Oh, Kaede...Kimiyo...where did you go?"_

Panicking, Mio took a shot at the ghost. The spirit didn't react, and after a split second it vanished.

Mio lowered the camera.

"Come on, Mayu..." she whispered.

As they walked down the hallway, the spirit appeared again, vanishing into a doorway. Mio looked at her sister.

"Let's go."

She gripped the handle on the door and pulled. The door slowly creaked open, and Mio held the camera ready.

The fact that the room was empty didn't comfort Mio. By now, she knew this village much, much too well to trust an empty room. She cautiously held up the flashlight while gripping the camera with her other hand. The room appeared to be a large, empty Tatami room. There were a few bookshelves on one wall, and as Mio walked closer to it, she noticed a small scrap of paper sticking out from in between two books. Curious, she carefully pulled the paper out. It was crumpled and faded, but she was able to make out what it said.

It was a diary entry.

_I can't believe they're doing this to us._

_Why did they choose Kimiyo and me for the Ritual?_

_I don't want to kill her, and she doesn't want to be a butterfly._

_We are not suited for this Ritual, and they ought to have chosen the Kiryu sisters. _

_They can do it._

_We will be a disappointment._

_Tsuchihara Kaede_

Mio locked eyes with her twin. "There were twins in this house, too, Mayu." Her twin nodded.

"But something happened...they...didn't..." Mayu's voice trailed off. She was staring at something, something behind Mio.

"_Cowards..." _

Mio froze. That voice was not what she would have called friendly. It was a young woman's voice, perhaps she was not much older than the Amakura twins. But the owner of the voice was angry. And, as Mio turned around to face the owner of that voice, she realized that the voice belonged to a ghost. That same ghost of the young woman in the black and gold kimono that had appeared before. This ghost, however, was unkempt. Her tangled black hair obscured her face, and there were bruises around her neck...finger indentations. Without hestitating, Mio put the camera to her eye, quickly snapping a shot at the spirt before it could grab her. For a moment, the spirit was stunned...then it homed in on Mayu. Again, Mio took a shot at it with the camera. That didn't stop the spirit from attempting to choke Mayu. Mio's instinct to defend her sister kicked in, and she began taking snapshots at the ghost without paying attention to how well it was timed or how much film she was using or even how much damage she was dealing, just as long as it let go of her sister.

Amazingly, the spirit did. It released Mayu's throat and fell, moaning and clutching at its throat before it faded away. Mio ran to her sister and put an arm around her shoulder.

"Are you all right?"

Her sister nodded. She was still motionless. Without saying a word, she took Mio's hand.

_**FLASHBACK**_

_A pair of identical twin girls in gray kimonos were sitting across from one another in the Tatami room. One appeared to be in deep thought while the other was writing furiously in a diary._

"_You can't be serious, Kaede," said the twin who had appeared to be lost in thought, "They'll catch us."_

"_Not if we're careful,"_ _the writing twin answered without even looking up._

"_But, Kaede, if we run away, I'm sure our family will be punished. Can't we at least take Izumi with us?"_

"_No, Kimiyo. Izumi doesn't understand. Mama doesn't understand, and Papa doesn't understand," Kaede said as she looked up from her writing, "They'll want us to go through with the ritual, and besides, they'll slow us down. No. We have to do it alone."_

_Kimiyo Tsuchihara looked away from her twin. For the first time in her life, she doubted her sister._


End file.
